Reindeer James

Chapter 14

In the following days, James judged all sorts of events from the Emergency Landing where the reindeer had to safely land their sleigh at a moment's notice to the Photo Shoot where they had to pose for photographers midflight. Ruby enjoyed the latter a little too much, following the cameraman after the event ended in the hopes he would take a couple extra photos for her to display in her stall. The thunderously sighing elf had finally agreed to take one of her and James together to commemorate their first Reindeer Games.

Ruby insisted on putting it inside a Snow Place Like Home picture frame with a snowman on it. "Bet you can't name two cooler-looking friends," she said to Tango.

Tango halfheartedly chewed on an iceberg lettuce. "Frosty and that kid he brought to visit the Pole last year, Donner and whoever snuck him peppers at the last Christmas party, the ticks that I've had in my left ear for the past week..."

Ruby stuck her tongue out at him. "You're just jealous," she said.

He sighed. "Shouldn't you be worrying about the big event coming up? It's pretty important, you know."

"They all are," James said.

"This one is really important," Tango said. "Really, really important. Like, there's no way Santa will ever let you anywhere near any of the sleighs on Christmas Eve if you screw up kind of important." He raised an eyebrow at James. "Don't you know about it yet?"

James rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Gabe kinda sorta made me help the camera elves put their gear away after we got our picture taken. He said he'd fill me in on the upcoming events later, but he's been super busy now that the weather's getting worse."

"Pity. Better luck next year, then."

"Can't you tell us?" James asked.

"Yeah, tell us!" Ruby got up on her hind legs and tickled Tango's side with her antlers.

Tango didn't even crack a smile. "I dunno. You have been such a pest lately I'm not even sure you'll make the nice list."

"Please?" Ruby rummaged around in her food trough until she found a piece of sugar cane. "I'll give you this."

Tango stopped chewing and stared at the sugarcane. "Where did you get that? I thought they weren't harvesting the cane until after Christmas."

"Grandpa always lets me have some of his stash." Ruby waved the sugarcane right under Tango's nose. "Everyone else has to wait until the New Year."

"You must be serious, then. Alright, pass it over, and I'll tell you all about it."

The instant Ruby tossed the sugarcane into his stall, Tango crunched it between his teeth and slurped at the sweetness within.

"Jeez," James said as he watched Tango devour the sugarcane, "you have an even bigger sweet tooth than I do."

"Something has to give me enough energy to deal with Twinkle Nose," he said. "Now, about that event. You'll be working as a team to deliver presents to relay points throughout the arena. With the weather being as nasty as it's been, it wouldn't surprise me if this'll count even more than usual. They'll be using some fancy new tech, too. Some sort of navigation system Nick's trying out."

Weird, James hadn't heard him mention anything like that. Granted, he usually tuned out half of what Nick said since it was usually as boring as wrapping presents, but he was sure he'd have noticed if he brought up anything about the reindeer.